The Mazama ash has been dated at numerous locations in the western US to 6900 years old. This means that if an archaeologist finds the Mazama ash in a stratified context, he or she knows that everything above it is less than 6900 years old, and everything below it is more than 6900 years old. The Mazama ash is an example of a:

Marker bed

Remote sensing is very useful in archaeological sites because it:

Aids archaeologists by giving some indication of where features may be situated.

The upper part of a soil where active organic and mechanical decomposition of geological and organic material occurs is the:

A horizon

Which of the following is the term for a natural formation process in which freeze/thaw activity in a soil selectively pushes larger artifacts to the surface of site?

Cryoturbation

What is this an example of: If the construction of a pueblo in 500 BP unearths remains of a pithouse constructed in 1000 BP, and the older pithouse remains are brought to the surface.

Reverse stratigraphy

The distribution of archaeological sites across a region.

Settlement pattern

If an archaeologist excavates one archaeological site, and makes generalizations about the prehistoric society as a whole from what he or she finds at that one site, then the generalizations will most likely be:

Biased, representing only part of the range of activities that the society was involved in.

In the Smithsonian site number 26CH798, the number "26" stands for:

The number of the state (arranged alphabetically) in which the site is located.

A geologic process whereby particulates are removed either by filtering of water through an already deposited matrix or by flood events that wash the matrix away

Deflation

GIS was able to show that Chacoan roads did not follow the path of least resistance across the landscape. This can most likely be explained by:

The fact that the roads held a symbolic rather than purely economic value to the Ancestral Pueblo people.

One of the goals of archaeology is to:

To develop interpretations for explaining the human behaviors that led to patterns of evidence recorded

A “tipi ring” was used in class to illustrate the geographic context of which type of site?

Surface

Which period of uselife that is an intentional act can occur during any of three of the other periods?

Discard

Which of the following contexts variants covers such as actions as the midden formation?

Primary transpose

The stratigraphy of an archaeological site is formed by:

human behavior and natural processes

Which of the following sampling strategies might you use if you were excavating an area the consisted of a grassland zone, a forested area, and floodplain and wanted to get an even sample from each area?

A long narrow excavation used to explore the vertical and horizontal dimensions and nature of a site along one axis.

trench excavation

Used primarily to probe the depth of subsurface archaeological deposits at a site.

test pit excavation

An excavation that follows buried strata or features along one horizontal dimension.

tunnel excavation

An excavation where the stratigraphic information is not preserved.

stripping excavation

Give meaning to the remains/traces recovered from the archaeological record.

archaeological interpretation

The physical remains/traces produced by past human activities/behaviors on the world.

archaeological record

The means used by archaeologists to finds, recover, preserve, describe and analyze the remains/traces of past human activities/behaviors

archaeological methods

The information/ideas used to assess the meaning of the physical remains/traces of past human activity/behavior.

archaeological theory

archaeology

the study of past humans and their behaviors through their material remains

Research perspective that emphasizes technology, ecology, demography, and economics in defining human behavior (culture as adaptation)

adaptive perspective

The evaluation of temporal (formation) and depositional (transformation) meaning of observed strata (the observed layering of matrices and features)

stratigraphy

An easily identified geologic layer whose age has been independently confirmed at numerous locations and whose presence can therefore be used to date archaeological and geological sediments

marker bed

Methods for identifying difficult to see or completely hidden/buried archaeological remains without physical disturbance

remote sensing

2 classes of remote sensing

aerial/satellite, subsurface

A layer where clays accumulate that are transported downward by water

B layer

A layer that consists of the unaltered or slightly altered parent material

C layer

A natural formation process in which trees and other plants affect the districution of artifacts within an archaeological site

floralturbation

A natural formation process in which animals affect the distribution of material within an archaeological site

faunalturbation

A natural formation process in which wet/dry cycles in clay-rich soils push artifacts upward as the sediment swells and then moves them down as cracks form during dry cycles

argilliturbation

A natural formation process in which artifacts are moved downslope through gravity, sometimes assisted by precipitation runoff

graviturbation

- The result when one sediment is unearthed by human or natural actions and moved elsewhere, whereby the latest material will be deposited on the bottom of the new sediment, and progressively earlier material will be deposited higher and higher in the stratigraphy

reverse stratigraphy

the movements and activities reconstructed from a settlement pattern

settlement system

Smithsonian number

a number (the state’s position alphabetically), a letter abbreviation of the county, and the site’s sequential number within the county

An unprotected location exposed to the elements

open context

A single occupation site with deposits on the surface only

surface context

A site found in an underground location (e.g., a cave)

underground context

Not usually a place as much as the form the site takes (e.g., a shipwreck)

underwater context

loss can occur during...

acquisition, manufacture, use

The first sample unit is selected at random, and all other units are selected by a predetermined interval from the first